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I have it. I do no use it that often, since no need for that. Several times I had to use I found it interesting. The feel of it is not too bad, but it dishes very fast, and then its a PITA to spend as much time flattening it. The speed wise, well, it is just Okay in my experience. Also, it's quite a brick, and will last a while.
I still prefer Norton Coarse India for the punctual work (like thinning the tip), slow dishing and quite fast. For thinning behind the edge I would go to Gesshin 220 though as it's much wider stone and feels much better.

Whoops, didn't realise my post looked so huge. Ill see if I can get a half decent photo. I didn't take any before shots unfortunately. I only have my phone to take photos so probs wont get a lot of detail

I spent several hours getting it to this stage. The patina covers the mess nicely though it frustrates me knowing its not perfect. I guess it takes a lot of practice though when it comes to a perfect finish. It does however cut quite well, and feels less clunky than it did when it arrived. I use it along with my 210 ginsanko tanaka which has surprisingly been something I find myself using frequently.

Ive found the tanaka to be a good service knife which I dont have to worry about. I spent several hours thinning and sanding off the finish and even wore off the kanji (it was my first knife I tried thinning, probably wouldn't have done it if I knew what the hell I was doing). Its slowly becoming a little less ugly to me over time and it certainly cuts well. Ive considered selling it a few times to try something else but I dont know if anyone would particularly want it so I might just see how a rehandle goes on it.

To be honest, I wasn't even planning to thin the watanabe down as I wanted to try a sturdy workhorse of a knife. I was sharpening a knife for a guy at work and when I got home was just in the mood to give it a crack. I probably spent like five hours or so before my hands caved in. I think the next step for this knife is changing the tip.. I find that I really quite dislike the tip on this knife as I guess I prefer something more akin to the ks.

All in all though, pretty happy with the performance. I swear its lost quite a bit of weight from all the thinning and it seems a bit more comfortable now. All in all, im pretty happy with the knife.. I would have preferred more distal taper on the spine though as it is quite thick the whole way. Im sure I will move on again to try something else that is exactly what I envision as my "ideal" knife. Either that or I pursue knife making so that maybe someday I can just make for myself what I consider ideal

sorry for taking over the thread. I dont think I mentioned anything about cerax stones at all ahaha

thats impressive. my watanabe isnt that thin but its getting there. im considering selling mine too. its just such a large knife. sorry for the thread jack people. panda let us know how you like your cerax stones.

has anyone ordered from tools from japan before? it's been almost a week since i put in the order and not a single confirmation or shipping notification email. i've inquired about a status update through the web site with no response yet as well... does this stu guy just suck at communicating or something?

has anyone ordered from tools from japan before? it's been almost a week since i put in the order and not a single confirmation or shipping notification email. i've inquired about a status update through the web site with no response yet as well... does this stu guy just suck at communicating or something?

I've ordered through him before. There was a problem caused by the local post office (EMS) he uses, which was 90% not his fault, but he still sorted it out at extra expense even if it took some patience on my part. I wouldn't worry about anything, though my impression of course is that he has a full-time job and his 'tools' sales are a part-time thing which wouldn't demand the response time of full-time sellers. You do, however, get decent prices without the mark ups of other especially non-Japan-based sellers. Just try him again. Good luck with it.

got a response with a confirmation of shipment. he was very informative in his email as well even included some tips on the stones that i had ordered, nice touch. even more astonishing is that he refunded the difference in shipping cost because the actual cost was a couple bucks cheaper than what i had paid.
will report on how the stones are when they arrive.